The various racket sports, whether tennis, or racketball, or even squash, involves a series of moves, or strokes, referred to as service or volley. Games which specifically involve striking a ball over and across the net to be returned by the opposing player further involves such moves as ground strokes, overhead strokes, and various strokes which result in a spin on the ball, so as to provide desired effects upon striking the ground on the other side of the net.
Tennis especially requires that the player have a smooth and confident stroke which can be made by the player substantially automatically and without conscious thought, while doing so in a manner which not only results in the ball moving in the desired direction, but also permits the player to strike the ball repeatedly without excessive tiring or injury.
All such moves require continued practice and it is often difficult as well as expensive for the beginning player to practice these desirable moves on a tennis court with sufficient repetition that the player quickly improves, at least with respect to the rudimentary moves required for swinging the racket.
A variety of devices have been proposed in the past to enable the players, especially the beginning player, to practice the sport alone, often in the privacy of his home, until reaching a minimum state of proficiency and lack of awkwardness so as to avoid embarrassment when playing on a court in public. These prior devices most generally involve a longitudinal stand which supports the ball, usually from a cord, or other rope-like means, with sufficient length of a flexible tether to enable the ball to be struck by the racket or, in the case of practicing the serve, to throw the ball in the air and to strike the ball with the racket upon its falling back toward the player. Such devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,191,372, 3,893,669, 4,269,410, 3,861,679, and in a particularly unusual one involving a fishing rod, No. 4,079,934.
These devices, although all apparently similar, differ from each other in various minor ways However, a common problem involves the problem of entanglement of the cord or other flexible filament holding the tennis ball in place. This is a common problem with all devices that retain the ball rather than permit it to be released upon being struck In addition, those which have releasable means for holding the ball, such that the ball will move when struck, have the similar problem because the means holding the ball remain with the cord and act as a similar kind of weight. In all cases, the cord tends to end up wrapped around the horizontal holding member, rendering it difficult to strike again.